Shoe welting



y 1946- w. c. ViZARD 2,404,998

SHOE WELTING Filed Feb. 7, 1944 Invezafiom- Wm 61 Vz'zwd,

Patented July 30, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHOE WELTIN G William C. Vizard, Brockton, Mass., assignor to Barbour Welting Company, Brockton, Mass., 21- copartnership composed of Perley E. Barbour, Walter G. Barbour, and Richard H. Barbour Application February '7, 1944, Serial No. 521,465

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to shoe welting and per tains more particularly to improvements in preformed welts and their method of manufacture.

The principal purpose of the invention is to produce a molded welt which will serve the purposes of Goodyear welting yet which eliminates the grooving and beveling of the ordinary Goodyear welt, which provides a proper contour at the inseam edge, and which may be built into shoe with a minimum of beating to afford tighter seam while furnishing a wider welt extension than that ordinarily provided by standard Goodyear welting.

A further object is to produce a welt having a molded inseam flange which is substantially thinner than the welt extension, permitting the inseam stitch to be pulled closer to the lip of the insole of the shoe and preventing the Goodyear outsole stitch from cutting the inseam.

The improved process of manufacture involves cutting the inseam edge of a standard-size Goodyear welt strip, to provide a pair of flexible lips, and preferably channeling the flesh body between the lips to afford a relatively thin inseam edge. then bending the lips downwardly and cementing them together under pressure to form a premolded flange which provides the desired inclination and a crease for the inseam stitch without beveling the top or grooving the bottom of the welt.

Recommended embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a welt strip incised at its inseam edge in accordance with the improved method, to provide a pair of inseam lips;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the premolded welt formed by bending down and cementing said lips;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modified and preferred form of welt strip in which the body of the strip has been channeled between the incised lips;

Fig. 4. is a View of the preferred welt made by bending and cementing the lips of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 illustrates a further modification in which the welt strip is composed of laminated sheets; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of the toe portion of a welted shoe, prior to bottom filling and soling.

In the form shown in Fig. 1, the welt strip ll consists of a single ply of grain leather or other suitable welt material, of standard size for Goodyear welting, one-half inch wide by one-eighth inch thick and of any desired length, The margin of the strip along the side to be used as the inseam edge is slit longitudinally by an angular cut l2 extending upwardly of the longitudinal flesh edge, from a line adjacent the bottom of the strip to within 0.050 inch of the top or grain surface, and then parallel to said surface for a distance approximately aa inch, at 13, to form a beveled lower lip l4 and a triangular shaped upper lip 55.

These lips are then bent downwardly and bonded together under pressure, after applying a suitable cement between the opposed lips, to form the depending inseam flange it of the premolded welt shown in Fig. 2. It will be appreciated that the slitting of the inseam edge and the reunion of its separated lips not only facilitates the bending of the flange, but also ensures that the flange thus formed will hold its shape because of the bridging action afforded by the slight displacement of the respective lips relative to each other during the bending operation.

It will also be observed that the upper or grain surface of the welt continues over the inseam flange, thus avoiding the objectionable appear ance of a skived and beveled inseam margin which is frequently characteristic of a standard Goodyear welt when built into a shoe. The welt extension I? alforded by the improved, premolded welting is, moreover, approximately inch wider than that of ordinary grooved and beveled Goodyear welt as usually applied to a shoe.

The inseam flange [6 will fit closely under the feather of the insole of a shoe to which this welting is applied; the crease 18 serves as a guide for the inseam stitch; the welt extension of the stitched welt projects outwardly from the shoe along its sides, and the toe area is easily flattened, and only sufficient welt rolling or beating to flatten the underside of the welt extension is required in preparing the welted shoe for bottom finishing and outsoling, for the fibres of the inseam lips have been stretched at the fold of the flange l5, substantially eliminating residual strain on the welt during the welt-turning and beating operations. It is well known that the ordinary operation of welt beating is an extremely critical step in shoe manufacture, and that excessive or improper beating is a primary cause of damaged, distorted or defective shoes. This danger is sub stantially obviated by the use of the welting herein disclosed.

These advantages are more pronounced when the preformed welt is made as shown in Figs.

3 3 and 4., which provides an inseam flange substantially thinner at the stitch line than the Welt proper, thereby permitting the inseam stitch to be pulled closer to the lip of the insole and preventing the outsole stitch from cutting the inseam stitch of the welt.

In accordance with this preferred method, the edge cut inclines upwardly at an angle of about 40, as at fit, from the lower corner of the inseam edge approximately inch, then parallel to the base of the welt about 1.; inch at 22, then vertically upward .040 inch at 23, outwardly inch at 24, and downwardly at 25 to the first out. These cuts free a rectangular string of material which is removed and discarded or used elsewhere, and form a channel in the body of the welt material between the lowerlip 25 and upper lip 27 thus produced. The two lips are folded downwardly and cemented together as above described to form the inseam flange 28 of Fig. l.

Welting made in accordance with either illustrated form of this invention may be composed of laminated strips of thin leather or other flexible material suitable for welting, such as fibrous, plastic, or paper sheets, or combinations of such materials, as indicated in Fig. 5. Such laminated strips may be edge slit as in Fig. 1 or 3, and it will be understood that the length and direction of the slits or cuts may be varied to suit particular conditions without departing from the essence of this invention as defined in the appended claims.

Fig, 6 illustrates the application of the premolded welt H to an unfinished shoe, in accordance with the customary Goodyear welting process. As previously pointed out, the welt is of such contour that the inseam flange l 6 readily fits beneath the feather of an insole 31 having a normally channel inseam lip, with the welt extension ll projecting outwardly from the lasted upper 32, and the inseam stitch 33 pulls the flange tightly toward the lip of the insole so that the stitch is well hidden within the seam. Because of the novel formation of the flange and the uniform appearance of the top of the welt, an ordinary half inch welt may thus be attached with a full width welt extension.

I claim:

LA method of making preformed weltin which consists in slitting the inseam edge of a welt strip to. form a pair of flexible lips and removing a string of material from the welt body between said lips, bending the lips downwardly relative to the welt extension and cementing them together to form a depending inseam flange.

2. A method or" making preformed welting which consists in incising the inseam edge of a Welt strip by a cut inclining upwardly of its base, then extending inwardly parallel thereto, then upwardly, then outwardly parallel to its upper surface, and then downwardly to the inclined cut, to free a string from the body of the strip, and form a pair of opposed, flexible lips, removing said string, and then bending the lips downwardly relative to the welt extension and cementing them together under pressure.

WILLIAM C. VIZARD. 

